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Reimu Hakurei
Reimu Hakurei (博麗　霊夢 Hakurei Reimu) is the main character of the Touhou Project along with Marisa Kirisame. As the shrine maiden of Hakurei, she manages the Hakurei Border of Gensokyo and exterminates troublesome youkai. Description Reimu is of moderate height. She has brown-black hair which varies in length and style between games (tending towards long and loose in later works), though she always wears a large red ribbon at the back of her head, and red tubes on her sidelocks. She is usually seen in her "miko uniform", but it bears little in common with the standard uniform beyond the red-and-white colour scheme (which ZUN has acknowledged). This uniform consists of a red skirt (rather than the standard hakama), a sleeveless red top with a white collar, tied with a yellow ribbon (a red ribbon in Embodiment of Scarlet Devil and Perfect Cherry Blossom, a blue one in Phantasmagoria of Flower View, Subterranean Animism and Hopeless Masquerade), and a pair of white detached sleeves which expose her armpits and sarashi. Because of the color scheme she is occasionally called the "red-white miko". Her miko clothing and her purification rod come from Rinnosuke Morichika, but it's unknown who designs them. In chapter 7 of Strange and Bright Nature Deity, she used chopsticks with her left hand, and it was stated that she was left-handed (this statement was deleted in the collected edition), but she held a pen with her right hand in Subterranean Animism. It has been speculated by fans that, assuming this wasn't an art error, she may be ambidextrous or just used to writing with her right hand. History Highly Responsive to Prayers A lone shrine sits Far East: the Hakurei Shrine. The powerful seal placed there has worn away, and many strange creatures are starting to come out. Now Reimu, seeking revenge (or possibly just to sate her curiosity), and armed with the shrine's treasure, the Yin-Yang Orbs, goes to the gate to face the non-human creatures inside. The gate will lead to either Makai or Hell depending on which route the player chooses. Story of Eastern Wonderland Reimu is training intensely in the harsh extremities of a mountain (or taking it easy), but when she returns to the shrine, she finds it infested by youkai, ghosts and other non-human creatures. With her faithful turtle Genjii and her trusty Yin-Yang Orbs, she sets out to find the one who caused the trouble. Her journey leads her to Rika, the culprit, as well as Mima, who has broken the seal placed on her in Highly Responsive to Prayers, and desires the power of the Yin-Yang Orbs for herself. Reimu is victorious in battle and learns the truth behind the Yin-Yang Orbs. Phantasmagoria of Dim.Dream Things have been peaceful lately so Reimu has time to kill. When some old ruins appear near the shrine, promising a reward for whoever can manage to make it inside, she decides to enter a sort of tournament to decide who will go in. Assuming she is the player character, she defeats all six opponents and makes it inside to confront Chiyuri Kitashirakawa and Yumemi Okazaki, who have come from the real world in search of proof of magic. As a reward for defeating her, Yumemi gives Reimu the housekeeping robot Ruukoto. Lotus Land Story Reimu mulls over on how quiet things have been, but soon enough, youkai and spirits start flooding out into Gensokyo again, putting her shrine in danger. She confronts a few, then realizes this must have been the work of something bigger, and decides to go straight to the source of the issue. She makes her way through to the Dream World, where she finally meets Yuuka Kazami and defeats her. Mystic Square A large outpour of demons are appearing throughout the land from Makai, and Reimu sets out to exterminate them. She reaches the creator of Makai itself, Shinki, and defeats her in battle. Afterwards, she learns that the youkai and demon overflow in Gensokyo is the fault of some kind of Makai travel agency. Shinki promises to do something about it, but the demons make their way back to the shrine anyway. Embodiment of the Scarlet Devil A scarlet mist covers the sky of Gensokyo. Reimu who is annoyed by the mist, sets out to stop the incident. Her travels lead her to the Scarlet Devil Mansion, whose owner, Remilia Scarlet, has spread the mist to try and block out the sun's rays, as she is a vampire. After defeating her, Remilia soon comes to visit her at the shrine, but Reimu has to return to the mansion when an odd rain suddenly appears over it, in order to deal with Flandre Scarlet. Perfect Cherry Blossom Even though it is May, spring shows no signs of coming, leaving the inhabitants of Gensokyo in a cold winter weather that only got worse. Reimu, noticing cherry petals blowing from the Netherworld, decides to set out and stop the perpetrator from holding spring hostage. After making her way into the Netherworld, she comes to Hakugyokurou, where the ghost Yuyuko Saigyouji spends her time administrating the spirits of the dead. She was gathering the essence of spring to try and make the Saigyou Ayakashi bloom, but Reimu stops her before she completes it. Later on, Yuyuko asks Reimu to go deal with her friend Yukari Yakumo, as she is the one who has been weakening the boundary between Gensokyo and the Netherworld, and she does so, after fierce combat. Yukari then restores the strength of the boundary. Immaterial and Missing Power As Reimu makes preparations for an upcoming feast, both humans and youkai are drawn to the feast and are unable to stop partying. Reimu is suspicious of a strange mist that covers Gensokyo and goes to investigate. She roams around, beating up various characters she suspects to be the culprit. She cannot find them; but on the day of the feast, Suika Ibuki finally makes herself known, and Yukari Yakumo shows Reimu to her. Suika soons becomes attached to hanging out at the Hakurei Shrine. Imperishable Night Yukari is not able to sleep and discovers the full moon is nowhere to be found; it has been replaced with a fake moon, and the night appears to have stopped. She convinces Reimu into investigating the cause with her. After dealing with a few youkai, and Marisa Kirisame in particular, who demands to know why they've created this eternal night, they reach Eientei, a house hidden in the Bamboo Forest of the Lost. Once there, they either confront Eirin Yagokoro or Kaguya Houraisan. Eirin explains that she actually sealed the Earth away from the Moon in order to prevent the Lunarians from taking Kaguya back. Kaguya, however, has tired of hiding, and so challenges Reimu and Yukari to complete her five impossible requests. Once they are defeated, they undo the seal (and thus "return" the real moon to Gensokyo). Afterwards, they all decide to have a moon viewing. Later on, Kaguya sends them into another part of the Bamboo Forest of the Lost as a "test of guts" - but her true intentions are revealed to be trying to annoy Fujiwara no Mokou, another immortal human, and her eternal rival. Phantasmagoria of Flower View Reimu, who is usually easy-going, is disturbed by the amount of flowers blooming and, not to be the one who shrugs off her duties, goes on to search for answers. She fights through many opponents, including news reporter Aya Shameimaru, in search of the truth. Eventually she reaches Muenzuka, where the shinigami Komachi Onozuka, who appears to have been slacking off on her job to manage said spirits. Eiki Shiki, Yamaxanadu appears after Reimu beats Komachi up, and explains what's happening - an awful lot of spirits of the dead suddenly arrived from the Human World, and they're having trouble accomodating all of them. After a lecture, they do battle, and Reimu emerges victorious. The three of them have a flower viewing later on, where it's explained that as the spirits of the dead cross the Sanzu River, the flowers' blooming will settle down. Mountain of Faith Reimu's shrine has become a hotspot for youkai, so she doesn't get many human visitors to do patronage. She receives a foreboding threat from a mysterious human visitor, who demands that the Hakurei shrine be shut down and submit to another god. Reimu, always the optimist, decided to go to Youkai Mountain to face the goddess who is making these threats. She fights her way up to the Moriya Shrine and defeats its shrine maiden, Sanae Kochiya, as well as its resident god, Kanako Yasaka, thus saving her own shrine. Afterwards, Reimu summons everyone to the shrine to watch the autumn leaves, where she vouches for Sanae and Kanako and tells Nitori and Aya that they should invite them over for drinks sometime and generally get along. Sanae also tells Reimu that youkai are a good source of faith. A while later, Marisa brings Reimu the rumor that a second god is actually living at the Moriya Shrine, and she goes to check it out. She then meets Suwako Moriya and defeats her. Scarlet Weather Rhapsody The Hakurei Shrine is suddenly destroyed by an earthquake, but upon consulting with Marisa, Reimu finds out that no one else felt it, so there must be something odd going on. She goes around to various suspicious characters, including Komachi Onodzuka, who Reimu initially suspects. However, it's not her, so Reimu ends up making her way towards Heaven, where the celestials Iku Nagae and Tenshi Hinanawi reside. Tenshi reveals she started the incident simply because she was bored watching everyone else getting involved in incidents and wanted to start her own. She also claims she destroyed Reimu's shrine so Reimu would be motivated to resolve the incident; Reimu promptly resolves the incident by defeating Tenshi. Afterwards, Tenshi has a legion of celestials help rebuild her shrine. Undefined Fantastic Object When the treasure ship appears in the skies of Gensokyo, Reimu decides to go after it. She forces her way into it only to discover that there's no treasure inside. However, Minamitsu Murasa tells her they're headed to Makai to revive a "saint" of some sort. She follows them there and meets Byakuren Hijiri, a Buddhist monk that loves youkai and humans equally. That certainly won't do, so Reimu beats her up. She and Byakuren later fly around the skies on the ship, but afterwards the ship is landed and renovated into the Myouren Temple. A little later, she follows up on the strange light that was following her during the journey, and it turns out to be Nue Houjuu, a straggler from Byakuren's group. Reimu defeats her and persuades her to visit the temple. Ten Desires A large number of divine spirits appear, threatening the flower viewing, so it's up to Reimu to figure out what's causing it. She visits the Netherworld first; while Yuyuko Saigyouji isn't the culprit, she points the shrine maiden towards the Myouren Temple. After forcing her way to the graveyard, she discovers the spirits all flocking to the Hall of Dreams' Great Mausoleum. Once inside, she defeats the newly resurrected Mononobe no Futo and Toyosatomimi no Miko in battle. Personality Her personality is straightforward, optimistic, and a bit curious. She is quick to anger if offended, but just as quick to offer help to those in need. According to Komachi, Reimu has an innocent heart that can't truly hate anyone. While rather lazy in her free time, she is highly devoted to her duties as the Hakurei Shrine Maiden, resulting in a "shoot first and ask questions later" attitude to youkai extermination. It's been stated that Reimu treats everyone the same, whether they're humans, youkai or gods, giving them no particular respect or disrespect. This habit has caused her to inadvertently befriend many youkai she defeats. While she tries to keep youkai away from her shrine, this is because it makes it harder to do her job rather than because she dislikes them. At the end of the symposium in Symposium of Post-mysticism, when Reimu goes to break it up, Miko notes that though Reimu says she wants to eliminate all the youkai, she actually just wants to attain a peace in Gensokyo that doesn't require violence, like the others present wish. Abilities Ability to float While flight is extremely common among inhabitants of Gensokyo, Reimu's ability extends beyond that; she is capable of phasing in & out of existence, or as described in The Grimoire of Marisa, floating away from reality. Reimu can use this power to teleport short distances, but rarely seems to be aware that she is doing so. The ultimate expression of this ability is Fantasy Nature, which renders her completely invincible while active; this ability was considered too powerful for use as a spell card until Marisa gave it a name and time limit. Aura manipulation It's stated in the omake.txt (おまけ.txt) of Embodiment of Scarlet Devil that Reimu can control the natural spirits of living things, an ability which is not listed in any source afterwards. No clear instance of this ability has been displayed in canon. Powers as the Hakurei Shrine Maiden As the Hakurei shrine maiden, Reimu can handle the Hakurei Yin-Yang Orbs, and is trained in youkai extermination techniques as well as standard duties like performing blessings. Reimu is also capable of invoking Gensokyo's native gods into her body, but she isn't well-trained enough to do so reliably. Barrier techniques Reimu displays great aptitude with magical barriers (beyond that normally associated with shrine maidens), presumably related to her work in maintaining the Great Hakurei Barrier. Among her techniques are barriers that explode, push enemies (or herself), or act as portals for her other attacks. Reimu is capable of dismantling barriers and seals too complex for Marisa Kirisame and Patchouli Knowledge to understand, with what Marisa calls her "cheat technique". Category:Touhou Project Characters Category:PC Debut Category:All Characters